Ocean Health Index Gulf of California

Subregion Draft #2 for feedback

Hola a todos, ¡esperamos que todos estén bien!

Hola a todos, ¡esperamos que todos estén bien!

¡Por favor, dinos qué piensas! Gracias.

Contents

Based on everyone’s feedback, we present draft #2 of the OHI Gulf of California regions. We now define 9 subregions (vs. 11), and some of the boundaries have shifted from those proposed during the 1st Expert Working Group meeting. We now incorporate the POEM region information. However, the subregions are still defined by state and major ecoregion boundaries; and the boundaries are still hierarchical such that each subregion is contained with a single state and ecoregion.

If, after reviewing the map and our questions, you have any concerns or comments about these region delineations please email us or connect with us on Zoom at one of our open office hours. This helps us move forward to the next steps!

If you would like to meet over Zoom instead of writing an email, we will have open office hours on:

  • need to make new times….

Sophia Lecuona Manos’s Personal Meeting Room Join Zoom Meeting

https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/4645991986?pwd=YVZPRzVJTUdtT3VCbWVNZkZYSFQ3Zz09

Meeting ID: 464 599 1986

Passcode: seahorse

Gulf of California subregions (draft #2)

In addition to state and ecoregion boundaries, we now incorporate the POEM boundaries into the OHI Gulf of California map. The POEM regions have served as a regional framework for collecting and reporting data, and consequently, people are familiar with these regions and some data are reported at this scale.

To create the current OHI Gulf of California map we assigned each of the >120 POEM regions to the nine general regions identified by the Expert Working Group.

OHI 7 subregions (Draft #2)


The boundaries are as follows:

Upper Gulf (subregions 1 & 5): Follows the boundary of the Biosphere Reserve. The southern border of the Baja side is located around San Felipe; and for the Sonora side the border is at Puerto Peñasco. The line dividing is more/less half the upper Gulf Biosphere reserves.

Midriff Island (subregions 2 & 6): The Baja (subregion 2) boundary goes from San Felipe to the state line where Baja Sur begins; the Sonora boundary goes from Puerto Peñasco to El Choyudo (site paper here). The internal boundary is wider on the Sonora side so it includes San Esteban, Tiburon, Tuner/or Datil, and San Pedro Martir Islands.

Central Gulf (subregions 3 & 7). The Baja side (subregion 3) goes from the Baja Sur state border to just north of Loreto. The Sonoran side goes from El Choyudo to the Sonora/Sinaloa state border.

Southern Gulf (subregions 4, 8, 9). The Baja side (subregion 4) goes from just north of Loreto to Cabo San Lucas. Region 8 starts and ends at the Sinaloa state borders. Region 9 starts at the Nayarit state border and stops at the northern tip of Jalisco (at Cabo Corrientes) so that the the entire Bahia de Banderas Bay is included.

Region 9 Southern Gulf - Nayarit/Jalisco: the coast of Nayarit, including the entire Bahia de Banderas Bay, which includes part of Jalisco, to Cabo Corrientes.

Primary changes from original map: - For the northern regions (1+6): The boundaries were moved north so the region includes only the Biosphere Reserve. We also avoid the mouth of the River. - For region 7 the boundary goes further south (moved from Kono to el Choyudo). - Regions 4 and 5 of Southern Baja Sur combined. - Regions 9 and 10 within Sinaloa combined (the coast of the Sinaloa state is very similar, mainly mangroves and sand/mud flats, with few rocky areas).

OHI Subregions by State and Ecoregion

We can also show how the regions align with ecoregion and state boundaries.

State boundaries

Ecoregion boundaries

Questions

  • Do the 9 subregions seem reasonable? If not, what changes should be made?
  • For the Southern Gulf region, our boundary on the Baja Sur side is more north than the original boundary of the ecoregions map (this boundary goes to Punta Coyote). If this is an issue, we could add an additional region here.
  • For the Southern Gulf region, our boundary on the Sonora/Sinaloa side is located more South (at the Sonora/Sinaloa border) than the original boundary based on the ecoregions map (in this map the southern boundary starts at Guaymas in Sonora). We can adjust this if it is problematic.
  • Does the midline boundaries seem reasonable?

OHI Subregions

Key modifications made to POEM Areas:

  1. POEM Area #92 was split at the Sinaloa-Nayarit state border,
  2. POEM Area #112 was split to better align with Region_3 and Region_4, and
  3. an additional area was added from the edge of the POEM Areas #107, #106, and #6 to Cabo Corrientes to establish the consensus southern boundary of Region_9.

Thank you all for your time! ¡Gracias a todos por su tiempo!